The mental devil felt like crying. It tried its best to escape, only to be tied up by Li Yao more and more closely. It was even dragged back by him by brute force.
"Wow!"
Clinging to the mental devil, Li Yao said with tears in his eyes, "I didn't know that you would be so loyal at such a critical moment to stay and die with me. As the saying goes, a friend in need is a friend indeed. It seems that I've misjudged you. I apologize to you. My good brother, there's no need to say anything. We will live and die together today!"
"… Live my ass!"
The mental devil wriggled and cried in vain. "What sins did I commit in my previous life when I was a member of the Blood Stripe Virus to deserve such a 'good brother' like you in this life? If you want to die, you can die on your own. I'm still young. I still have a lot of years ahead of me. I don't want to die. I — I — If I had known this would happen, I would've joined hands with Lu Qingchen and killed —"
The mental devil came to an abrupt halt.
The turbulence of data that was as violent as a tornado and as chaotic as a vortex that could devour the world swept them into it.
For a moment, both Li Yao and the mental devil felt that the world was swirling, as if they had gone through thousands of years in a trance. Their souls were mottled under the blast of infinite data, like statues that had been corroded by the wind and riddled with holes.
"Dad!"
"Li Yao!"
At the last moment, they heard a familiar voice above their heads, as well as a vague drop of brightness that was growing larger and larger.
It was Xiaoming, Wenwen, and A Boxing Champion. Instead of leaving, they had come to save Li Yao at the risk of their information being completely shattered and their lives ending and to face the 'Fuxi data turbulence' together with him!
Li Yao was overjoyed. But when he thought that Xiaoming and Wenwen might be involved in the weird swirl or even corrupted by the highly corrosive data turbulence, he felt that his soul was tightened like a steel cable. Brand-New strength was generated out of nowhere. His body that looked like an earthworm expanded nonstop until it was as tall as a mountain. His flagella grew again, turning into muscular arms. He resisted the entire violent ocean of data like an ancient god from the sky.
"I will not allow you to corrupt Xiaoming and Wenwen!"
Boom!
Li Yao felt that every data in the whirlpool had turned into a shining star, and 1.08 billion stars were exploding in front of him, blowing his soul away and completely annihilating him.
He didn't know what happened next.
…
He was sleeping. He was thinking. While he was rebuilding the broken virtual world, he was also reconstructing his soul and exploring and releasing the power in the deepest part of his soul.
Just like Lu Qingchen not long ago, he had gone through reincarnation after reincarnation in the mother. His consciousness had been divided into multiple levels from the inside to the outside. The tentacles of his mind were now extended to the other side of the vast sea of stars, and now they were constricted to the streams of data around him that looked like plankton.
Sometimes, he was like an immortal unicellular life that had gone through a long evolution in the virtual world where it was hard to tell the difference between reality and illusion. From a unicellular life to a multicellular life, from a carpet of fungi to a trilobite, from a fish to an amphibian, from a dinosaur to an ape, and even into a swarm of beetles like the Houyi Clan or a towering tree like the Kuafu Clan.
Sometimes, his "tentacles" could flow out of "Ultimate Salvation" through the data ports that were open, allowing him to see clearly how the broken, twisted flagship of the Fuxi fleet was captured by other starships with the force field and dragged to the middle of two magnificent warships. Although he did not recognize the models of the two warships for the time being, the raging, glittering emblem of the Rising Dragon of the Nine Stars on the head of the warships still made him take a long breath in relief.
His "tentacles" continued extending. He seemed to see the coalition army of the Federation and the Imperium chasing after the enemy at the edge of the Empyreal Terminus Sector and sweeping the remaining forces of the Fuxi fleet, including the reconstruction of the capital, the surrender of the Yellow Dragon Sector, and the chaos and collapse of the territories of the four Kurfürst families … Long after the battle to protect the capital, the whole universe was still at an extremely high temperature like a burning iron ingot. The eternal war was just a short rest, but the dawn of peace had arrived after all.
He wasn't sure if this was real or just his imagination.
It was exactly the same as he was not sure whether the illusionary worlds that he had experienced during his unpredictability were real or not. The primeval age, the primeval age, the primeval age, the ancient world of swordsmen, the Great Dark Age under the reign of demons, and the infinite glory of the Star Ocean Imperium.
Speaking of which, how should he distinguish between reality and falsehood? He remembered that he had once argued with Fuxi and Lu Qingchen about the question. Were the worlds built by data and information more fake and therefore less valuable than the worlds of the Cultivators who had been around for forty thousand years? How could he be sure that the worlds of the Cultivators, including himself, were real?
Perhaps, every intelligent life was "fake" to some extent when they were just born. That was why they had to spend their entire life on "Cultivation"!
While he was thinking, he received an epiphany from the deepest part of his soul. A certain crystal shell seemed to have cracked, and something that was as pure and weak as a newborn baby but full of infinite possibilities broke out of the cocoon.
He, Li Yao, had finally woken up again after a long sleep, swallowing, melting, and training!
"This place is …"
Li Yao felt that he was a fetus in amniotic fluid. He could not have felt more tranquil and peaceful. He discovered that he and the mental devil were melded into one again, entangling each other like an enormous gene strand. The upper half of his body turned into the shape of a human being again, but it was translucent and glittering. Brilliance was flowing out of every pore on his body that seemed to be real.
Raising his hands softly, he quickly analyzed all the data that made up the body. Li Yao discovered, to his surprise, that his soul had been perfectly embedded with part of Fuxi's database, allowing him to grasp part of Fuxi's memories and abilities. Of course, he had also been granted partial access to 'Ultimate Salvation' and the ten thousand primeval crystal processors.
However, Fuxi's data pieces were too few after all, and they were not enough to give him an overwhelming advantage. Still, they were completely suppressed by him and became part of him.
This place was still a virtual space.
It was not hard to tell that the virtual space was already on the verge of collapse after the fierce battle that happened a long time ago. But there was no telling what kind of force supported it, but it managed to stay in the shaking, dying state until it was rescued by somebody.
At this moment, the bumpy, twisted, and deformed virtual worlds were soaking in the ocean of data that had calmed down like wounded cells, resting and recovering their vitality.
For the virtual figurines in the virtual worlds, it was impossible for them to realize what was happening in the outside world. They had only experienced the apocalyptic 'catastrophes' such as landslides, volcanic eruptions, super hurricanes, tsunamis, and even meteorite showers.
Some of the virtual worlds completely collapsed, and the clusters of data turned into lifeless grayish-white, no longer showing any changes.
However, in more virtual worlds, the stubborn people, after being dragged back to the starting point of evolution by the catastrophes, began the cycle of struggling for survival again.
Li Yao had a lot of mixed feelings as he watched the heated reconstruction scenes. In a trance, he did not know how to distinguish the virtual figurines made of data from the real lives anymore.
According to the legends, human beings were made of mud by the Nuwa Clan.
Therefore, what right did these little fellows made of mud have to judge who was alive and who wasn't?
Then, Li Yao saw translucent threads of light extending all the way from the thousands of virtual worlds that were being rebuilt to his body.
He had a weird feeling, as if he were absorbing nutrients from the virtual worlds incessantly.
The more tenacious the lives in the virtual worlds were, the higher their evolution was, and even the so-called 'intelligent life' was born, the more changes and possibilities there would be in the data, and the more nutrients he could collect from the virtual worlds.
It was exactly because of the nourishment of countless virtual worlds that he was able to recover from his exhaustion so quickly and vaguely peek into an unprecedented, indescribable, and undefined brand-new realm!
"Dad!"
While Li Yao was figuring out the connection between himself and the thousands of virtual worlds, including the entire virtual space, he suddenly heard a crisp cry.
It seemed to be Xiaoming's voice, but something was not quite right. The voice was rather coarse and did not sound like that of a seven-year-old child but more like that of a teenager who was in the middle of puberty.
Then, a tall, handsome young man swam up from the depths of the ocean of data. He looked at him with a smile and shouted again, "Dad!"
Li Yao was dumbfounded.
The young man looked almost the same as when he was in the magical equipment graveyard years ago. He was as handsome, unrestrained, and full of wildness and evil masculinity.
The problem was that he did not have such a big son!
"Xiaoming?"
Sensing the familiar scent from the guy, Li Yao asked in disbelief, "How — how did you become like this?"
"I grew up. Every child has to grow up eventually, don't they?"
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